During mining and construction operations, replaceable wear members are typically used to protect earth working equipment such as excavation buckets. During use, the wear members gradually wear down due to the abrasive conditions and heavy loading. Once depleted, the wear members are removed from the equipment and replaced. Using wear members provides a cost-effective approach to digging and other earth working operations because it lessens the need of having to repair or replace the more expensive underlying equipment such as the lip or other portions of the equipment.
Wear members are commonly secured to earth working equipment by mechanical means (for example, a lock pin, bolt, or other locking mechanism). During earth working operations, wear members may be subjected to a variety of directional forces, which can include axial, vertical, and lateral loads. The various locks of the past have sought with varying degrees of success to ensure the wear members can remain attached under the application of high forces, be easy, quick and safe to install and remove, and/or tighten the wear member against the underlying equipment.